


Apartment Story

by ricochetdays (elodiej)



Category: Tokyo Babylon
Genre: Fluff, M/M, shotenverse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-07-12
Updated: 2012-07-23
Packaged: 2017-11-09 19:51:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/457747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elodiej/pseuds/ricochetdays
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fifty prompt-based drabbles set in the Tokyo Babylon Shoten universe, centering around Subaru and Seishrio's engagement, and their married life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apartment Story

**Author's Note:**

> This work is set primarily in the Shoten 5/6 stories which eventually became Tokyo Babylon. In it, Seishiro genuinely likes being a veterinarian, and despite his mother's vehement protests, does not want to be the Sakurazukamori, or even compromise by producing an heir. He is quite taken with Subaru, who he met (properly) when Subaru's penguin shikigami overate with Hokuto and had to be taken to the vet's, and actually proposes at the end of Shoten 6. It's really too cute, and sort of canon, like an official AU.

**01 - Walking**  
One of the hardest things, thinks Subaru, about adjusting to this new relationship is surprisingly simple. Going out in public had always been a bit nerve-wracking, especially when it included his sister, but now that he is sandwiched between Hokuto - who has always been naturally attention-grabbing - and Seishiro - whose mission seems to be breaking his own record for how many times he can cause Subaru to blush in a day - the frequency of Embarrassing Public Incidents, recalled often and with that same anxious feeling for long after, increased at an alarming pace.

 **02 - Waltz**  
Unexpectedly, Seishiro-san was the one who didn't know any formal dances. Hokuto, taking personal offense at this grave inadequacy in his upbringing, forced Subaru to teach him. Subaru quietly pointed out it was Hokuto's idea, but was unsurprisingly drowned out in her flurry of enthusiasm. She waved it off in that horrifyingly casual manner of hers, saying it wouldn't be proper for her to take the first dance when she wasn't the one engaged to Seishiro. Subaru, now too embarrassed to do more than stutter, gave up and took Seishiro's hand and reached up to put one hand on Seishiro's shoulder (he was still too flustered to take Seishiro's waist).

 **03 - Wishes**  
After his mother's death, almost exactly five years after his proposal, Seishiro switches to a heavier cologne, a change which Subaru questions but doesn't pry when Seishiro gives vague, too-general reasons. And if Hokuto notices that things now smell a bit like iron and sakura whenever she gets too close, well, she isn't going to upset Subaru with just a hunch.

(But she pays more attention now, just in case.)

 **04 - Wonder**  
Seishiro often contemplates what life without Subaru would have entailed, and none of his speculations are particularly pleasing. He might have become the Sakurazukamori at a younger age, and grown into the profession. Become cold and single-minded like his mother. He can't convince himself that he never would have met Subaru, but the idea of confronting Subaru not as Seishiro-san the veterinarian but as the enemy assassin is almost more repulsive. It frightens him, sometimes.

(Sometimes he has dreams filled with blood and sakura petals, dreams where his vision is flat and then the earthquakes come, and he sees Subaru across the bridge and then -)

So he teases Subaru a bit more and tries not to dwell because he has Subaru here and now, and that is what is most important.

 **05 - Worry**  
As the years pass, Subaru gradually becomes less high-strung (though his trademark shyness and bright-red blush never fully leaves). But there are still many things that make him worry, like the nights when Seishiro comes home much too late and holds Subaru so tightly when he finally clambers into bed.

 **06 - Whimsy**  
It is some kind of cosmic revenge, it must be, for all those times Seishiro had tricked Subaru into so many amusing and awkward situations. Because this - this, suddenly being at Subaru's mercy, a too-smug smile tugging at the corners of his mouth - gives him a kind of regret he has never experienced, the abject horror of realizing just what that teasing had felt like for Subaru. It's already too much, and it's only been a week since Subaru began his work.

It had begun rather innocently, a seemingly innocent gesture: sakura flowers, snuck into his lunch. A small joke, which Seishiro had quietly and warmly acknowledged when he returned home from the clinic. But it had escalated with frightening rapidity. The next day, they were snuck into his breast pocket, and after Subaru had dropped by after a job for lunch, into the drawer in his office. That too, had been amusing.

The petals that showed up in his work coat pockets, his glasses case, the medicine cabinet, and most inexplicably of all, out of his shirtsleeves at odd intervals when he was sure they hadn't been before. And now, watching his (illusory) book dissolve into sakura petals before him, Hokuto dissolving into laughter with them, he resolved to have his revenge, somehow.

 **07 - Wasteland**  
Hokuto insisted upon baking the wedding cake; Subaru and Seishiro said it was true that she was an excellent baker, while their silent exchanged glances confirmed their shared belief it was also easiest to let her have her way in these matters. So it was with a certain sort of resignation that Seishiro entered Hokuto's apartment the day before the wedding in Subaru's stead - it would have given Subaru a heart attack, which was far too risky just days before the ceremony - and found the expected war zone, the somewhat less expected immaculate three-tiered wedding cake, and the inevitably exhausted Hokuto, slumped almost triumphantly amidst a pile of frosting and fondant.

 **08 - Whiskey and rum**  
A few weeks after the Sakura Invasion - the incident had gained a proper title in Seishiro's mind just after he'd discovered what he had thought was his thermos of soup had been filled instead with petals, on the afternoon of the third day - when life had settled down to be rather more comfortably domestic, Subaru had surprised him again by shyly setting out whiskey for the both of them.

Seishiro hadn't expected that. He wondered where the whiskey had come from, and how Subaru had acquired a taste for it. He wondered why Subaru chose whiskey and not some other liquor, or any other drink. But it wasn't an unpleasant mystery, and it was one that took less and less of his interest as the whiskey in their glasses decreased and conversation relaxed. It was nice seeing Subaru like this, loose and unburdened. Subaru had a very youthful appearance, it was true, but Seishiro still spied the beginnings of sneaky wrinkles and stress lines creeping into his features where they didn't belong. They looked strange on him, his expression during jobs even more haggard than usual, which was far too much to begin with. Seishiro resolved to acquire more whiskey just as Subaru stood, and he was momentarily distracted as Subaru stretched slowly and gracefully.

No, Subaru wasn't really youthful anymore, he thought, not like he had been when they first met. Subaru-kun had certainly grown up, in more ways than one. That train of thought derailed spectacularly as Subaru shot him a slow, familiar smile over his shoulder that sent a chill rolling across Seishiro's shoulders and reminded him not unpleasantly of the warmth in his chest from the alcohol. He downed the rest of the glass as he stood, only to find another sakura blossom at the bottom.

He glared at it viciously for breaking the content little scene. It had probably been too soon to hope that he wouldn't have to deal with them cropping up unexpectedly, especially given his heritage, but he couldn't help resent it all the same. He didn't like being reminded of all the times he'd been beat at his own teasing game, and it set him on edge in a way that clashed jarringly with the mood Subaru had just woven moments ago. Seishiro could have sworn he even smelled cherries faintly, another infuriating trick, as he quietly shifted from their kitchen toward their bedroom - it was almost as if the smell were coming from the bedroom, even -

Because it _was_ coming from the bedroom, he realized. Because there were candles and blossoms everywhere, and when and how had Subaru arranged this, Seishiro didn't know. The flowers covered the bed, all around Subaru. And Subaru, with that look back, and a hint of his usual bashfulness. _I'm sorry about the pranks._ His eyes were soft and expectant.

Seishiro's smile widened as his eyes relaxed, shock turning to something far more keen. He shut the door very quietly behind him, not so much out of any politness but out of the rush of efficient smoothness that Subaru's surprise had wrought, and moved toward the bed. _Apology accepted._

Seishiro never did get the revenge he had hoped for, but it didn't particularly bother him, in the end.

 **09 - War**  
He had thought the jokes about horrible in-laws were merely exaggerations until he had tea with Seishiro's mother. She was an older, stately woman whose severe posture reminded Subaru of his own grandmother. Except his grandmother had never quite scowled so intensely or openly, and had certainly never addressed him like Sekka adressed Seishiro. She snapped about the tea, and about Seishiro not visiting enough, and his disrespect for _family traditions_. That particular point which had deeper implications that Subaru understood, and so mostly he stared at his teacup and stayed as close to Seishiro as the situation allowed.

Seishiro, for his part, was uncannily level-headed and more formal than Subaru had ever seen. The principle "kill them with kindness" was one he had taken to heart and kept in mind particularly as his mother lobbed insults and rude insinuations at him. She wisely was civil to Subaru, although she kept her comments so only grudgingly. It was dangerous to stir trouble with the Sumeragi head, and moreso with the heir to the Sakurazukamori playing guard to him.

 **10 - Weddings**  
They spent their honeymoon in Tokyo, in their new apartment. It wasn't feasible for either of them to leave for very long - with Seishiro's clinic to be run, and Subaru's ever-demanding job - so they decided to make the move from their separate apartments into their new, jointly inhabited one a grand event. Of course, "they" was mostly just Hokuto, and Seishiro as a runner-up. Subaru was involved tangentially only in things like furniture-shopping, because Hokuto knew what his favorite color and foods were without having to ask.


End file.
